Do you drink out of plastic bottles?

[Autumnleaf]

Do you know about which plastic bottles are more likely than others to leach chemicals into what you are drinking?

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Someone I work with brought this to my attention today. Have you ever heard of it?

[Sk8ordude]

For all I know they all do, I prefer cheap heavy metal laden tap water myself. Canned food also leeches metal from the can into it. Glass doesn't though... unless it breaks... Which is something I'm unusually paranoid about.

[Autumnleaf]

For all I know they all do, I prefer cheap heavy metal laden tap water myself. Canned food also leeches metal from the can into it. Glass doesn't though... unless it breaks... Which is something I'm unusually paranoid about.

I wonder about the aluminum leading to alzheimers.

[TheOverman]

The stigma mainly pertain to plastic drinking materials made with Bisphenol A. All the leading manufacturers have since phased it out (nalgene, nestle, coca-cola). It is only used in poor countries with no quality control for instance maybe locally bottled water from Liberia.

Overall, I wouldn't worry about it. Next you won't be using microwaves, cellphones etc... and just be neurotic.

[Autumnleaf]

The stigma mainly pertain to plastic drinking materials made with Bisphenol A. All the leading manufacturers have since phased it out (nalgene, nestle, coca-cola). It is only used in poor countries with no quality control for instance maybe locally bottled water from Liberia.

Overall, I wouldn't worry about it. Next you won't be using microwaves, cellphones etc... and just be neurotic.

It seems like research suggests bad things about cell phones, take a moment to consider how much safety research they did before releasing this to the public.

Not sure about microwaves.

[HAL 9000]

I wonder about the aluminum leading to alzheimers.

I was told by a generally paranoid science teacher that the aluminum in medication fillers is probably the main problem.

[eagleseven]

After working for some time in a hospital, I've learned that we should spend less time worrying about things like leaching-plastic-cups, and more time worrying about things like diet, exercise, and driving safely. Because most Americans are going to die from being a sedentary slug who eats too much and drives too wildly.

I mean, we're a society that loves drinking and smoking known poisons, yet freaks out over trace elements in water. The tar in that cigarette, and the alcohol in that beer, is thousands of times more dangerous than anything in that bottled water.

[MichelleCDiaz]

Luckily my writing class is focused on environmental issues, and I watched a whole documentary on plastic bottles and read a couple of articles.

I do try my best to not drink out of plastic bottles, but I still do sometimes, but not often.

[freeeekyyy]

People are always looking for something to be worried about.

[TheOverman]

It seems like research suggests bad things about cell phones, take a moment to consider how much safety research they did before releasing this to the public.

Not sure about microwaves.

What I find funny is the fact that people see the word radiation and crap themselves needlessly. It's ionizing radiation, the human body emits more radiation. The only thing i've found to be a pain with mobiles is that my ear gets hot.

Also note for the future any book/article with "The Truth about..." in the title is 99.9% crackpot nonsense.

1 Watt (cell phone) is not enough to heat anything up.

There is much more to an EM signal than power! Frequency, modulation, perhaps even polarization, need to be taken into account, esp. when gauging the response of a phenomenally complex system like the human body. In fact, the power density one would be typically exposed to during a cellphone conversation would never be naturally encountered in the in the microwave region. Short of lightening strikes, I can't think of any significant source of microwaves one would encounter on earth before the last hundred years.

I believe the ionizing/non-ionizing distinction to be quite misleading. The assumption there is that should a photon not have sufficient energy to directly break DNA strands, it is therefore totally harmless. The question of macroscopically judging, whether by individual cases or epidemiologically, the harm of cell phones and related technology (wifi, etc.) is quite open, and one I avoid for lack of knowledge. However there are oodles of studies that document specific, in vitro effects, which are non-thermal, that is, not arising from mere dielectric heating of tissue. This itself flattens the previous assumption of "non-ionizing => no bioeffect".
Most recently, an American study showed an increase in the glucose uptake of the brain following cellphone exposure, but not on the entire brain - only on the side which the phone was placed at. To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

"Conclusions In healthy participants and compared with no exposure, 50-minute cell phone exposure was associated with increased brain glucose metabolism in the region closest to the antenna. This finding is of unknown clinical significance. "

I would think your ear gets hot due to a) having something pressed to it, just like wearing earmuffs would tend to warm your ears, and b) the heat of the cellphone itself (all electronics generate heat). Maybe as a second order effect, dielectric heating.

I don't see how a cell phone could cause any significant amount of heating from the radiation. My 1200 watt microwave takes 20 seconds to heat up my sandwich. Something with 1200 times less output shouldn't have much, if any, noticeable effect on the human body. The miniscule heating that might be done should quickly be absorbed by the surrounding molecules that make up the cells. I can't see this amount being anything significant at all. The sun puts out more heat on my skin in winter. I'd heat my brain up more by running a few laps on the track.

The Australia Standards for microwave oven leakage and it's maximum allowable is 5mW /cm^2 at a distance of 5cm. I found some test reports on consumer microwave oven leakages and they are typically less than 0.5mW/cm^2. Pertaining to microwave oven leakage: be aware these ovens operate in the same region as cellphones/wifi? 3G phones run pretty close, 2.1 GHz, ovens go at 2.4 GHz although they are they are also a thousand times higher wattage. In my experience wattage makes all the difference, that is why I use lots of sunblock when I go near the equator.

[envirodude]

The dose makes the poison. I'm not making this stuff up...

Seriously, chronic worrying shortens life expectancy much more than all environmental exposure to synthetic chemicals combined.

Concise public health advice:

Wash your hands,
Don't drink water that smells, tastes, or looks different than it did yesterday,
Sneeze and cough into your elbow,
Eat, drink, and be merry in moderation
Wash your hands again.

[MissBlossom]

I'm with those who don't give a damn. I am tired of all those "this is poisonous, that is poisonous". My husband says that using plastic things will eventually give you cancer. I don't care.

[tdevries]

I hear that heating food in a microwave in plastic containers can make the food quite carcinogenic.

[Autumnleaf]

I hear that heating food in a microwave in plastic containers can make the food quite carcinogenic.

It probably depends on they type of plastic. Heat excites molecules and hot molecules like to move.

[Warrior]

The stigma mainly pertain to plastic drinking materials made with Bisphenol A. All the leading manufacturers have since phased it out (nalgene, nestle, coca-cola). It is only used in poor countries with no quality control for instance maybe locally bottled water from Liberia.


BPA is also used in in sealant material in some metal cans and glass bottles. If you're really concerned about it, these sources can introduce BPA at levels similar to some plastic bottles.

I hear that heating food in a microwave in plastic containers can make the food quite carcinogenic.

Making the plastic hot is what causes this, not necessarily the microwave itself. If you put hot food from the stove into a plastic container, it can have the same effect.

Overall, though, this sums up my thoughts:

After working for some time in a hospital, I've learned that we should spend less time worrying about things like leaching-plastic-cups, and more time worrying about things like diet, exercise, and driving safely. Because most Americans are going to die from being a sedentary slug who eats too much and drives too wildly.

I mean, we're a society that loves drinking and smoking known poisons, yet freaks out over trace elements in water. The tar in that cigarette, and the alcohol in that beer, is thousands of times more dangerous than anything in that bottled water.

[ZerroDefex]

After working for some time in a hospital, I've learned that we should spend less time worrying about things like leaching-plastic-cups, and more time worrying about things like diet, exercise, and driving safely. Because most Americans are going to die from being a sedentary slug who eats too much and drives too wildly.

I mean, we're a society that loves drinking and smoking known poisons, yet freaks out over trace elements in water. The tar in that cigarette, and the alcohol in that beer, is thousands of times more dangerous than anything in that bottled water.

Damn right.

Another thing I never understood was people scare of cellphone radiation who wore headsets and kept their phone in their pocket. So it's better to have this radiation source next to your unshielded genitals rather than your skull?